Mission

The Council on Accreditation (COA) partners with human service organizations worldwide to improve service delivery outcomes by developing, applying, and promoting accreditation standards.

Vision

COA envisions excellence in the delivery of human services globally, resulting in the well-being of individuals, families, and communities.

Values

COA’s Organizational values include:

• We believe in the inherent dignity, value and uniqueness of all people and that organizations are strengthened by a diversity of ethnicities, cultures and viewpoints.
• We believe that all persons, families and communities should receive human services that produce positive outcomes.
• We believe that persons, families and communities have a right and a responsibility to participate in all levels of decision-making that affect them.
• We believe that accreditation standards should be culturally responsive, evidence-based, innovative, realistic and conform to best practice principles.
• We believe that all our stakeholders should receive friendly, courteous, prompt and knowledgeable service.

History and Activities

The Council on Accreditation (COA) is an independent, not-for-profit, international accreditor of the full array of social and behavioral healthcare services for children, youth, adults, seniors and families. COA was founded in 1977 by the Child Welfare League of America and Family Service America (now the Alliance for Children and Families). Originally known as an accrediting body for family and children’s agencies, COA currently accredits over 45 different service areas in the United States (US) and Canada. Among the service areas are substance abuse treatment, adult day care, services for the homeless, foster care, and inter-country adoption.

In 2008, COA accredited or was in the process of accrediting more than 1,800 private and public organizations that serve more that 7 million individuals and families in the United States, Canada, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, England and the Philippines. Currently, 34% of COA-accredited agencies have a budget of less than $2 million; the budget of another 44% is between $2 and $10 million.

In addition to standards for private social service and behavioral health care organizations, COA has developed separate business lines for public agencies, Canadian organizations, networks and lead management entities, and after school programs.

COA views the accreditation process as a catalyst for change that builds on an organization’s strengths and helps it achieve better results in all areas. The accreditation process is designed to meet the needs of diverse organizations--voluntary, public and proprietary, military, local and statewide, large and small. An organization is evaluated against best-practice standards, which are developed using a consensus model with input from a wide range of service providers, funders, experts, policymakers and consumers.

The Value of Accreditation

In our current outcomes-oriented environment, organizations are increasingly called upon to demonstrate the impact of the care they provide. Accreditation is designed to be a framework within which an organization can measure a variety of its achievements and demonstrate implementation of standards promoting higher quality.

The value and credibility of COA accreditation are formally recognized in over one hundred distinct instances in forty-four different states, the District of Columbia, as well as British Columbia, Canada. Additionally, the U.S. Department of State has designated COA as the sole national independent accreditor for organizations providing inter-country adoption services in the United States that work with sending countries that have ratified the Hague Treaty.

To find out more about COA and the accreditation process, please visit our website at www.coanet.org.